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Harlan Ellison Sues to Halt 'In Time'
Source: Deadline
Famed and insanely prolific fiction author Harlan Ellison filed suit in an L.A. federal court yesterday to halt the release of New Regency's upcoming sci-fi thriller 'In Time', claiming copyright infringement. Ellison, who has a long history of filing (and winning) high profile copyright claims, alleges that the film heavily co-opts themes, plots, and character similarities from his 1965 short story 'Repent, Harlequin! Said the Ticktockman'.
The upcoming film stars Justin Timberlake as Will Salas - a lowly worker in a dystopian world where people stop aging at 25 and must work to buy themselves more time. People buy food with it, they get paid in days and weeks, they trade it for goods. When Will is suddenly given more time than he can imagine, he finds himself at odds against a corrupt police force out to get him. Similarly, Ellison's short story is set in a dystopian world where time is strictly managed and workers who don't conform to the rigorous schedule are "docked" time off their lives, until they are eventually "turned off" when their time runs out. Both the film and the story center around the main hero who disrupts the system of time-allotment and becomes a target for the "Timekeepers" who sic their armed forces on him to quell any attempts at non-conformity.
The short story by Ellison is one the most reprinted short stories in the English language, and has been translated into a variety of other languages. It's so well known that even reviewer/critic Richard Roeper mistakenly attributed the film as being "based on a brilliant short story by the great Harlan Ellison" in his Fall Movie Preview. According to the suit, the author is seeking an injunction against the film to bar it from being released, and that all copies of the film be impounded and destroyed. As is the case with most legal cases of this type, it will most likely end in a cash settlement with the author and proper credit for his work.
Comment
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Comment by Happy Birthday Roboto on September 20, 2011 at 2:34pm -
@Lucas
Read the many, many, many, many comments below, you can't copyright an idea only the execution of the idea!
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Comment by Lucas Weismann on September 20, 2011 at 11:49am -
Oh and if someone rips off your ideas it's a violation of copyright. There are plenty of good reasons for people to protect their copyrights. Especially since Hollywood hasn't always had a great track record of respecting other people's rights.
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Comment by Lucas Weismann on September 20, 2011 at 11:43am
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This is actually a lot more like terry pratchett's pre-disc world novel strata.
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Comment by Happy Birthday Roboto on September 20, 2011 at 6:39am
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You guys have every right to accuse me of being a guy who thinks too much because frankly I am!
But, if you could copyright an idea, the first sci-fi idea would be the first and only sci-fi story, likewise for horror and the whole shebang!I think we've reached a point where all ideas, robots, androids, vampires, zombies, aliens, etc have been done and all writers have to offer is new perspectives on them. You don't need to have an original ide, just an interesting take on an old idea (Inception) or use an existing idea as social commentary (The Dark Knight). This everyone is going to sue sue everyone idea is basically children crying wolf, when a real problem happens the real victim's voice won't be heard!
Fungusmonley made some intelligent points, but sadly in order for his plan to work, a writer would need to give away all the details of their story in progress, an alternative would be to register a copy of every draft with a legal firm. For those fo us who live in Britain I recommend The Script Vault, plese find a link here! There is probably an American equivalent or two.I think the best way forward would be for studios to make their movies without revealing the plot and cut action only trailers, who cares if they lie (I already know I'm not going to see this film or Zack Snyder's Man of Steel, but I will watch The Avengers and The Dark Knight Rises) then have a good legal team prepared for a lawsuit as and when it happens.
Thomas Jefferson once said the price for freedom is eternal vigilance.
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Comment by Dr. Rufus on September 19, 2011 at 11:09pm -
Who cares, this movie looks like shit anyways.
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Comment by Cinema Dr. AJ on September 19, 2011 at 2:50am -
is everyone just skimming over the part in this blog where Ellison's story is like... fucking EXACTLY the same as In Time? I mean... its not like he's suing someone for the word superhero or scrolls [like the bethesda shit over minecraft] The stories are fucking ridiculously similar.
This is some James Cameron ripping off Call Me Joe shit right here...
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Comment by Falcon Empress on September 19, 2011 at 12:54am -
@Roboto - Is there seriously a story like "Call Me Joe"? Now, I do not read much sci-fi - barely any, in fact (I am more of a fantasy person), but about a year back I read a novel called "Manta's Gift" by Timothy Zahn, which is about a guy who loses the use of his legs after a skiing incident and is then offered a chace by travelling to Jupiter and have his consciousness put into the mind of one of the manta-like creatures that live in its atmosphere. He lives with them, comes to identify with them andin the end, turns against the Evil Corporation (TM) which, as it turns out, sent him there with not exactly honest intentions. Oh and he falls for one of the manta-females, can't forget to mention that. In any case, being, as I have pointed out, near-oblivious about the trends and clichés of sci-fi, is the "upload the mind of a disabled character into an alien creature" the eqivalent of "unlikely hero ventures on a quest to destroy the Evil Overlord after his village, family and friends are destroyed for no apparent reason" that has been plaguing fantasy for so long?
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Staff Comment by Fungusmonkey on September 19, 2011 at 12:27am -
@Roboto - Welcome to the modern day, litigious as it were. You don't need to do any of that stuff. You just need to do it if you want to ever have a shot in a lawsuit. This is the way things work: there are people out there who want money for doing very little. If they think your work is too much like their work, they will try to get that money. If it were any other field than speculative fiction I'd say do whatever you want. However, the field of sci-fi is notoriously crowded and well documented. If you're going to be a sci-fi writer, you either have to be insanely original and creative or at the very least register your sh** with the WGA, post blogs detailing your progress, do a couple searches to make sure your work isn't too much like someone elses, etc. The age old adage "a stitch in time saves nine" comes to mind. When in high risk areas wear a hardhat. The point I'm making is that sci-fi is a rough field - people need to know that these things happen a lot and to be prepared for it to happen again.
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Comment by Stephan on September 18, 2011 at 10:10pm -
If those three things are the only similarities, he shouldn't win. Someone being a nonconformist and rebelling against the system in a distopian society is done all the time in science-fiction. Also, the idea of having a set lifespan is a somewhat creative but pretty transparent social commentary on society that anyone who writes enough sci-fi could think up. And the name "Timekeepers" is so obvious it's not worth bringing up.
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Comment by Christian Bergman Jr. on September 18, 2011 at 8:13pm -
You can only be so crooked before you just crumble into a heap
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